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A sickly feral cat has been terrorizing people and pets in a Rockland County town, attacking unsuspecting residents and small pets, authorities and neighbors say. Checkey Beckford reports (Published Monday, July 6, 2015)

A sickly feral cat has been terrorizing a suburban New York town, attacking unsuspecting residents and small pets, authorities and neighbors say.

Police in Orangetown say a black cat has been on the attack since the weekend and are asking residents to be on the lookout.

Chris McKiernan was one of the cat's victims. He told NBC 4 New York Monday he and his family had just returned home from watching the Fourth of July fireworks in town when "out of nowhere, out of the darkness, came this black cat that just jumped and attached itself to me."

"I looked down and it was all over me," he said. "It was a little surreal."

The cat then "jumped back on me, tried to climb up me. And then I finally ripped it off again, and I was able to get the garbage can over it, and it was making all sorts of strange noises," he said.

McKiernan said he tried to keep the garbage can lid over the cat to hold it for rabies testing, but the lid kept moving with the cat inside it. When he lifted the lid for a brief moment, the cat shot out and beelined straight for the woods.